The Hoboken City Council has approved plans to improve the city’s electrical grid and is considering plans to improve the city’s water structure.

The plan for the electrical grid involves merging two old and flood-prone PSEG substations. The substation on Marshall Street will be decommissioned and combined with the substation on Madison Street.

Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer says that the facility will be modernized and elevated to protest it from flooding.

“We’re at risk of having another [Superstorm] Sandy-type event. We’ve had had other close calls,” Zimmer says. “The substations are now 50-plus years old. They had to go across the country to get parts or clean it.

The mayor also announced a separate, but related project involving the city’s water supply. Zimmer says that they are in talks with SUEZ Water to replace a near-25-year-old service contract. The renegotiation would provide millions of dollars to fund upgrades to the city’s 150-year-old water main system.

“This new agreement would provide for making sure that annual investments can be made every year and that we make sure we have the whole system upgraded for our Hoboken residents and the businesses as well. We need reliable energy and reliable water,” Zimmer says.

The SUEZ deal still needs approval by City Council. 

The electric grid project has already started. PSEG says it will cover the costs and the project could be completed in about a year and a half.

Public meetings will be held in Hoboken to get input on a new design for the substation. Zimmer says it will have an urban feel and be less of an eyesore than the current stations.